


gotta hustle up a cure

by SafelyCapricious



Series: things you find in a graveyard [5]
Category: X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Post - X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-05
Updated: 2019-10-05
Packaged: 2020-11-24 13:47:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20908646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SafelyCapricious/pseuds/SafelyCapricious
Summary: A commotion outside The Bulldog draws her companion’s gaze for a moment, and Rogue feels like she’s coming out of a haze. She’s been so involved in the conversation that the rest of the world had ceased to exist. But now that it’s back she realizes five things in quick succession.





	gotta hustle up a cure

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Paper Planes by M.I.A. <strike>Why are titles the _worst_? no one knows, but it won't stop!</strike>
> 
> This is part of my attempt at fictober. Day five! Holy shit! 
> 
> I hope you enjoy! This is, I think, my first posted Romy? I love them, and am forever bitter the movies didn't give them to us -- but what is fanfic for if not to fill the gaping void?
> 
> So, enjoy!

A commotion outside The Bulldog draws her companion’s gaze for a moment, and Rogue feels like she’s coming out of a haze. She’s been so involved in the conversation that the rest of the world had ceased to exist. But now that it’s back she realizes five things in quick succession. 

One, the classmates she’d come out with for her birthday had certainly left — probably to grab a street car and go to the French Quarter, as had been the plan after starting at The Bulldog to get enough of an alcohol blanket to not mind the smell of Bourbon street. 

Two, she’s accumulated a number of bills under the dollar pinned to her shirt. Two, section b, a number of those bills aren’t other ones but instead larger bills and she has no memory of most of them being attached. 

Three, she’s probably going to lose the argument she’s having with the masked stranger. Mainly because there’s no way for her to gracefully explain that while Magneto’s philosophy definitely has some very valid points — which it does — she’s never going to forgive the man for having her kidnapped and strapped into a death machine. 

Four, she’s willing to sleep with the masked stranger even though he thinks Magneto is right and is still wearing a mask and she’s not entirely sure what he looks like. A whole group had spilled out of one of the rentable party rooms earlier the night, all in masks, and most had taken theirs off — though some, like her masked stranger were still rocking the look. (She couldn’t judge too much, it was a _good_ look and he was pulling it off.) 

And five, she’s not actually convinced Magneto isn’t right, this guy is making real good arguments, but he’s still a bastard and she’d kick him in the balls if given half a chance. 

Erik chuckles, in her mind, and tells her he’d expect nothing less. 

She tells him to shut up, silently, but she’s just a little too tipsy to enforce it. She’s also tiny enough not to care overly much, however. 

(Finding out the cure worked and gave her the ability to touch had been such a wonderful moment, that finding out she still had a host of voices in her head had been like an unexpected rainstorm on a lovely day — it didn’t ruin the day but it definitely made her annoyed. She was getting better at dealing with them, especially now as there weren’t new voices coming in anymore.) 

“Anyways,” her masked stranger says, turning back to her. “You have to admit that Magneto’s methods get results.” 

“Mm,” she agrees, leaning forward and swiping her finger through the condensation left by her beer. “But he’s still a dick.” 

He throws his head back and laughs, and Kitty swears in her head. 

Rogue ignores her and grins. 

“Y’make it sound like you know the man, chére,” he says, and she can see the hint of a dimple behind the mask.

“Oh, yeah,” she agrees with a roll of her eyes and a snort, “Me ’n Erik go way back.” 

The Erik in her head laughs at her. But more importantly, her masked stranger laughs again and she takes a pull of her beer in victory. 

Oh yeah, she’s definitely gonna sleep with him. 

“He was right ‘bout the cure though,” he says, and her lascivious thoughts come to a grinding halt.

Fuck. 

“Excuse me?” she says — and there’s rushing in her ears and the voices in her head are going “ooooh”, and from John there’s an obnoxious “fight, fight, fight!” chant that means she doesn’t hear her own voice — but it must be more mild than she thinks or he’s just not picking up cues or he’s just a dumbass because he continues, blithely. 

“Nothin’ wrong with bein’ a mutant,” he says, “somethin’ wrong with anyone who took that cure though — n’ I feel sorry for anyone whose family forced —“ 

He’s too busy sputtering through the beer in his face to finish his thought — and Rogue is grabbing her glasses, it’s Wednesday and she wants to keep her glasses damnit, so she gets something from tonight — and leaving. 

It’s too bad, she thinks when she gets home, that someone so handsome could be so stupid. 

***

The cure wears off when she’s just one semester shy of graduating. 

There’s not really a good way to find out she’s never going to touch anyone again — but at least the cure wears off in levels and this time she realizes what’s happening quick. The poor barista who’d handed her the cup and touched her hand in the process is just woozy after the encounter — and Rogue has another voice in her head. 

The normies never last long, and this one fades faster than most. 

So she isolates. But she finishes her degree, not willing to abandon almost three years of hard work just because she’s got poison skin, again. 

She expects the most problems with the handshakes, but being known as someone with germ phobia is shockingly easy and works well. What works less well is when one of the partners in the law firm gets handsy and ends up unconscious on the floor. 

Bastard deserves to be unconscious for it, but she would’ve preferred to knock him out with a punch instead. 

But either way, he gets to stay and she gets kicked out and — back to Xavier’s she goes. 

She’s not sure what she’s expecting when she gets back, but the sheer number of soul stealing lawyer jokes from people who don’t know her well enough and who she doesn’t know well enough to punch in the face are not it. 

Taking missions so she can punch _something _in the face is the logical progression. 

Which is how she ends up face to helmet with Magneto and one of his new patsies. 

“Erik,” she says, with a nod, as she adjusts her gloves. She’s sure she’s not going to get close enough to punch him — or, preferred, kick him in the balls — before he’s got a steel girder around her or have her henchman tie her up with snot or whatever, but she owes it to herself to try. 

“Merde,” says said henchman, staring at her with black and red eyes, “Y’weren’t lyin’.” 

She narrows her eyes at him, because that voice is familiar and so is the throat and jawline and — her jaw promptly drops open. “Well, shit,” she says, after a moment. “Really dodged a bullet, not sleeping with you, didn’t I?” 

“Aw, chére,” he clutches his heart and Rogue is distantly aware of Magneto rolling his eyes and taking off on a metal disc, “Y’wound me.” 

She snorts. “Not yet I haven’t.” 

“An’ there’s still time to sleep together,” he says with a grin — the dimple is more devastating when not hidden by a mask, “I won’t tell if you don’t.” 

“You gotta deathwish or somethin’, sugah?”

“I got somethin’ for you, mon chére,” he says, and it shouldn’t work, it should just be sleazy. But it’s not sleazy and it does work and that just makes her want to punch him more. So she tightens her gloves again and tries to do just that. 

***

“Y’were right,” he says after hunting her down and cornering her in the library. “Magneto is a dick.” 

Erik protests, mildly, in her head and she curses herself — he’d joined Xavier days ago and she’d managed to successfully avoid him until now.“An’ you didn’t have to get chained to a death machine or nothin’ to realize,” she mocks and tries to slip past him. But where everyone else moves out of her way, instinctively flinching back, he stands his ground and she hesitates, not quite willing to risk touching him to escape. 

He grins, going for charming and succeeding, damn him, and steps closer and she curses herself again but retreats. Kitty makes a strong case for diving out the window and Rogue seriously considers. “D’accord,” his eyes darken and he takes another step closer, “that mean m’forgiven for that night n’have a chance with you ‘gain?” 

She snorts and, mindfully, pushes him back with a gloved hand on his chest. “Sugah, you lost that chance when my _cure_ wore off, ain’t no body touching me now that don’t wanna end in a body bag.”

His mouth drops open and he gapes at her, and with the added space from her push she gets past and escapes — and she hopes he’s going to spend the rest of the night contemplating what an idiot he is. 

**Author's Note:**

> So, not important to the story, but The Bulldog uptown is awesome and you should go if you get a chance. Go on Wednesday! Get pint glasses!
> 
> As always, you can find me [on tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/capriciouswrites)if you wanna chat! It'll be fun, I promise.
> 
> This is still probably not edited enough, so lemme know if anything is too wonky!
> 
> I enjoyed this a lot, but writing their dialogue is hard! Too much accent or too little and ugh. Anyways, hope you enjoyed!


End file.
